Week 14 Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (Hunt), Part A

Allerleirauh illustration by Otto Ubbelohde. Source.

Original Story: "Allerleirauh" from Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm (1884), translated by Margaret Hunt. Source.

Queen with beautiful golden hair is dying and asks that her husband not marry anyone else unless they have beautiful golden hair like she does.

The people want a Queen to rule over them again, but no noble lady or princess in any kingdom has beautiful golden hair like the queen. Except for the King's daughter who inherited her mother's looks. His advisers are shocked and try to dissuade him from forcing the princess into marriage with him. However, the king had gone mad. The princess came up with impossible challenges for the king to fulfill, such gifts like

"golden as the sun, one as silvery as the moon, and one as bright as the stars; besides this, I wish for a mantle of a thousand different kinds of fur"

However, the King accomplished this and rather than be forced to marry her father, the princess ran away from home, covered her self in soot, and when she was tired, the princess fell asleep in a hollow tree. She apparently ran far enough to go to another kingdom into the royal hunting grounds. The King there sees her and hires her to serve in the castle kitchen out of pity. Different feasts are thrown at the castle, and each night the King sees her in two of the dresses and falls in love with her. Finally, the princess makes the King soup and putting her ring in. This happens multiple times with multiple golden objects but each time the princess says A third ball comes and the princess wears a dress and puts on the coat, the King forces her to reveal her identity.

Retelling Ideas:

The King forces the princess to reveal her identity. Don't include this.

The Princess is dependent on the King because she does not have anywhere else to go besides back home to marry her father. Don't include this.

The Princess decides to enlist foreign aid to overthrow her mad father. The mad father has threatened everyone into silence and killed the seamstresses and most anyone who kno=ew he wanted to marry his daughter. He pretended to be a loving father whose daughter has been kidnapped and offers a reward for her safe return. The Princess knows this is a lie but does not want to hide forever. She decides to keep her disguise as a fur-covered beastly woman to see how the King treats his inferiors. Once she decides he is trustworthy, she petitions for aid. An international council is called and the Princess becomes Queen and her father is put inside an elderly home in hopes he will recover from his insanity.